Sat, 31 Aug 2019 22:39:01 -0700WeeblySun, 01 Sep 2019 02:07:12 GMThttp://www.roberthazelton.com/blog/no-recourseThere was a time when a company that provided a service cared about an individual user experience. That time has long since passed. Small businesses don't even seem to care all that much considering some of the way they practice service so when you put that to a big place like Apple, Microsoft, Nike, or any of those biggies, the average person is literally at their mercy. They have zero recourse in regards to poor service, bad practices, or decisions that just suck for them financially or otherwise.

I've come to this realization over the years as both a service manager and a random schlub who buys stuff. We would often weigh the complaint of a lower ranking employee versus that of someone with a 'higher powered ear' to complain to. That was a directive from our VP. And I'm fairly sure that's how it works for every place out there. If you're a big company, you determine how big of a stink someone can raise. If they are...say...random guy who bought an item, you don't care much if he complains. But if he's a celebrity, no one would likely hear about it because they'd just make it right behind the scenes.

I've seen a few bits of lame that don't matter. You just have to take it. The most recent was my purchase of the newest iPad Pro. I had an Apple Pencil but I don't really keep up on all their talks or videos, news releases. So this is partially my fault. I thought my pencil would work--after all, there's only ONE generation of the thing. When I tried it and it didn't work, I took to the web, found out how wrong I was, and felt the chafing blow of having to spend $130 dollars MORE to get my pad to do what I wanted.

And then throw away my previous $100 dollar item because it literally was no good. Oh, I guess I could've sold it for 1/10th the cost. They're going for like $15 bucks or something. So not only could I not use my previous purchase, but now I had to pay MORE than that purchase to make the new one work. The good news is that Best Buy has an awesome return policy. So I'm just going to take the thing back. If I would've kept it and done what Apple figured (it's only $130 more), then I would've spent nearly $1500 dollars on the case, iPad and Pencil. That's like...two decent PCs and one above average gaming machine.

I talked to a lot of people about it. Their comments all came back universally: 'It's only $130 bucks. Just do it'. That mentality comes from the fact that I could boycott Apple. I could sell everything I own of Apple and never buy another Apple product again. Even though I spent close to $13,000 dollars on Apple products from the middle of 2017 to present, I represent literally nothing to them at all. My complaints, my gripes, even a twitter campaign or going around to review them everywhere would do nothing at all.

First off, there are too many fan boys to defend them. They don't even have to acknowledge the complaint. Second, even if they did see it, they wouldn't care. They make billions upon billions despite consumer unfriendly decisions (like changing the charging port over and over so we have to buy more cords/adapters, changing accessories after one generation, including ONLY USB C on their laptop, forcing a user to buy a HUB for 90% of all peripherals or even charging $1000 extra for a stand for their new fancy monitor).

This is true of every big company. They have no incentive to care about what happens to the common user. And through protest, we just harm ourselves. In my case, if I decided I was done with Apple, my office would look like someone robbed me during the time between getting rid of it and replacing it. I've got an iMac, iPad Pro, iPhone, Air Pods, Apple Watch, Magic Mouse, Track Pad, Mac Book Pro, Apple TV 4k...and changing ALL of these at the same time inconveniences me in other ways, like having to get a new phone with my service provider (when my $1000 dollar iPhone X is suddenly worth $300 trade in).

But take a step back from Apple. Google recently raised their price on the G Suite. Significantly in fact. I bought it for $45 dollars for a year back in April of 2018. I got the notification that it would go up to $70 a year and promptly dropped it. That sucked, because I lost my domain name email but I wasn't about to pay $25 more for the exact same service. And why increase it THAT much? Google has plenty. They aren't offsetting prices to prevent losing their business. I complained to Weebly about it but that did about as much good as one would expect. They couldn't do anything about it and what was I going to do? Take it up with Google? Yeah, good luck.

And so we're back to my dilemma above. 'It's only $25 dollars more. Why not just pay it?'

Maybe that's true. And maybe voting with my dollar in that regard didn't do a damn thing. I did provide Google with Feedback (despite my statement above) because I do believe it's important for voices to be heard. To that end, I also complained to Apple about the pencil. I have complained to places every time this stuff has happened. The only times anyone has done anything about complaint of service has been small companies who actually DO need your business. That's the real nostalgia right there: the privately owned place that needs to be good to their customers to stick around.

Safeway decided that selling deli meat that passed its expiration by 5 days was okay. I let them know politely. The person gave me a tone that said 'why are you bothering me' but they went through the verbal motions of assuring me it would be taken care of. Two days later, I stopped in to see about picking up the meat I wanted. Now it was 7 days past date. I went and told someone about it. They were cooler, but I didn't get the sense they would do anything.

I visited again a while later. Now, the meat was TWELVE DAYS out of date. I didn't bother Safeway. I called the health department. The day after they acknowledged my email, the meat was gone from the shelf and they didn't restock anything new for another 3 weeks.

They don't care! Even if you're trying to be cool to help them out. I wrote Safeway an email, letting them know I'd given them a couple chances before taking it to the health department. They reached back out and asked what store I was talking about (despite the fact I gave them the freakin' address in my initial email). I've been in the service industry. I know it's rough (lord knows my people were taken to task all the time by zealous customers). But that said, it's ridiculous that we have zero recourse.

And why? Because no one can be inconvenienced for the relatively small amount of money they're taking for. Under $200 dollars in regards to prestige level tech isn't a big deal to most people. Under $50 dollars isn't a big deal with subscription services. But it should be. Especially when everyone KNOWS that it's just an ass in their accounting team that came up with this BS. They were like 'Dude, I guarantee if you double the cost they'll still pay. They might grumble, but they'll pay'. Then someone says 'What if we just jump it by 33% right now? That's a lot more'. So they do. And boom, some people complain but many are so brainwashed by the marketing that they actually think they're getting more value.

They aren't. We're just swindled. And we take it. My phone bill went up by $2 bucks. No explanation. Just costs more. I have to reach out to find out why but for $2 dollars? It's a hassle. This is the world we live in. Inconvenience is not worth our time to correct. Injustice just happens and we move on. It sucks. I'm sick of it and I wish things were different. But I don't see anything changing. In fact, I figure it'll get way worse. Big companies are buying small ones all the time. We won't have anyone who cares about service soon.

It'll be take what you get and like it. Open your wallet or go away because no one will listen to you. Welcome to capitalism I guess. Yay us.

]]>Mon, 08 Jul 2019 09:19:05 GMThttp://www.roberthazelton.com/blog/the-addiction-1995I'll never forget seeing this in a theater up in Seattle when it first came out. I was twenty years old and broke for any nihilistic, artsy vampire movie a director could throw out there. Nadja came out the year before and set the stage for my 'black and white philosophical vampire' interest.

When we saw the trailer for this, it was easy math. Over the years, I've probably seen it a dozen times. It was hard to get my hands on a copy but I finally got an import of it on DVD. Recently, it popped up on iTunes but only for rent and tonight, I watched it on Starz.

All around, it's one of my favorite bizarre vampire movies and I recommend it.

The whole point of the film is a metaphor for severe addiction. The director himself talked about having a heroin problem for years. As you go at this film, it's pretty obvious that whoever was involved knew their stuff when it came to the actions of someone dependent on a substance.

The philosophy acts as a solid background for the vampire to explore what it means to have this breakdown of will, this loss of control. Lili Taylor does a great job of being absolutely broken.

You might consider the whole thing to be a little heavy handed and I wouldn't disagree. It's pretty obvious what's going on from the hot second it begins. If you were confused or not paying attention, he throws some signs at you that are impossible to ignore. And, if for some reason you're feeling particularly stubborn, he kicks you in the face with it toward the very end.

This doesn't take away from the experience. It's moody, dark, brutal, sad...it becomes especially so when you have more empathy than I did at 20. Back then, it was all cool vampires biting people yay. Now, I can watch it from a perspective of someone losing everything and betraying everyone around them.

It hits harder when you have some common sense built up from life experience and overall, it becomes a better film. Consequently, Nadja is the same (though I'd argue it's much stranger than The Addiction).

Anyway, my rating for this is: 4.75 out of 5.

]]>Sat, 06 Jul 2019 20:23:02 GMThttp://www.roberthazelton.com/blog/dishonoured-2-2016I picked this game up when it first came out and I have no idea why I stopped. The best part is I was on the second to the last level in the game when I did. It's a shame because I had an absolute blast revisiting and completing this title. So much so I would recommend it without question.

This is a semi-open world game where you can take care of your objectives many different ways. You can sneak around, ensuring you're never caught and don't take out anyone. You can go in like Conan, swinging a sword like a maniac and fighting everyone who gets in your way...and then there are various story elements that crop up, offering you even more methods to tackle your problems.

All around, it's a fabulous experience that does everything right.

You play in first person and pick which character you want to play. Each have different powers (or none if you want to go at it on a harder mode). Bad guys stage a coup and you have to work to find out what's going on, then take the throne back.

The voice actors are awesome. Sam Rockwell, Rosario Dawson, Vincent D'Onofrio and a host of others who kick ass all show up. The average people on the street do a great job, making games like The Sinking City and Call of Cthulhu all the more glaring examples of how to do it wrong.

If you want to get down and dirty with combat, you've got parries, ducks, various swings, sword locks...guns, crossbows...it's pretty intense. Eventually, you transcend normal guards and start fighting teleporting witches, clockwork soldiers, and hell hounds as well.

What's neat is how the enemies react to how you play. If you're fighting a witch and use one of your void powers, they remark on how they have to change their tactics. If you cut off someone's head in front of another guard, they might start running and screaming for help. They're not mindless drones.

You are rated on each mission based on how you play. My method was pretty aggressive. Depending on what you do could result in a more 'optimistic' ending. Mine didn't seem too bad to me but there are supposedly 4 total.

There's a stand alone game that came out which I also picked up but I haven't tried it yet. From what I've seen, it pretty much is the same mechanics with a new story and you'll be playing as Rosario Dawson's character.

I would highly recommend Dishonoured 2 to anyone. The stealth elements are fun, the story is amazing, the aesthetics of a sort of Steampunk horror are on point. It's on sale right now for PC most places and WELL worth the price.

I can also say it never frustrated me in the whole 12 hours I played.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

]]>Thu, 04 Jul 2019 20:05:50 GMThttp://www.roberthazelton.com/blog/spider-man-far-from-home-2019Coming on the heels of Endgame had to be nerve wracking for the folks making this film. I haven't gone back to the theater to see a movie twice in a long time but I did with Endgame. It was fantastic. So Spider Man had some hype to live up to...like flipping to the next book in a series the second you finished to see what's changed.

I'm happy to say that most of the questions I had from Endgame did get answered here. I don't necessarily believe that it deserved 92%...I'd have been more inclined to the mid to high 80s myself, I still had a great time and it was an appropriate transition from what came before.

What I didn't like:

The effects when Peter was doing Spider Man things outside the suit were really obviously wired. That didn't seem necessary. The first part of Avengers: Age of Ultron is an anime with models of the real people so it's clear they could've done something better there.

Samuel L. Jackson's portrayal of Fury was...uninspired. I GUESS there's an argument for it conveyed in the movie but I don't buy it. I felt like he phoned it in which was kind of sad considering. Maybe he was exhausted from laying it all out in Shaft.

Beyond that, I can't say I had any credible complaints. The funny parts were hilarious. I liked the chaperone teachers. Their lines were ridiculous. Happy was amazing and there were plenty of emotionally stirring parts that I thought were perfectly suited.

There's not much more I can say without diving into spoiler territory. The post credit scenes were intense but considering this is the last Marvel movie of the year, that's a long time to speculate on what's going to happen.

I would say that Spider Man Far From Home was a solid addition to the MCU and a great way to start off the next 'series' of films. I'm sad this is the last one until...whenever, mostly because I feel like they've raised a lot of great questions. They've done what I think a good series should do...which is make people want to know what's next.

My rating for Spider Man is 4.25 out of 5.

]]>Sun, 30 Jun 2019 23:45:53 GMThttp://www.roberthazelton.com/blog/the-sinking-city-2019Back in October, 2018, Call of Cthulhu came out as a video game with a bunch of huge promises. Not the least of which were an open world, an RPG system that mattered, multiple methods to solve cases, and stunning quality development.

They pretty much failed to deliver on every single point with the exception that SOME cases could be solved in different ways. All around, it was a pretty big disappointment, one that I regretted paying full price for. So when the Sinking City was on the verge of coming out, I had high hopes this company could actually deliver.

And for the most part, they did. This is a far better example of the Lovecraft Mythos, focusing on a fictional island town that's been the subject of a terrible flood, turning it into horror Venice. You are a private detective heading out there because you've had creepy visions and sanity problems so immersion therapy is on the menu.

Much of the set up is exactly the same as Call of Cthulhu. The Sinking City has a world that feels a little more realistic in the sense that there are more people roaming around. Sadly, you can't interact with most of them. The place also is vast by comparison and you can free roam it for the most part.

These are the folks who brought us the Sherlock Holmes games and as a result, they focus heavy on collecting evidence and putting it together into deductions. You also have a supernatural power that lets you see into a spirit realm of sorts then engage a 'retrocognition'. That's you recreating crime scenes so you understand what happened.

There's a combat aspect of the game as well where you can shoot monsters or people who take shots at you as well. It's pretty creepy. Resources are tight (the town immediately turned to bartering because I guess they figure they'll never reconnect with the US) so you can't go hog wild with your guns.

Crafting is simply gathering the necessary parts, going to your inventory, and making stuff. You have a health meter and a sanity meter and a couple items to restore each of them. As you lose the sanity, the screen freaks out and you really do start seeing things. They did a great job with that one. I've wasted ammo on things I'm certain were hallucinations.

The atmosphere is spot on. It's a gorgeous game that's scared me several times. It's also far more fair than say...Resident Evil 7. That game was just brutal for no reason where this one you can squirm your way out of real problems easily enough.

Before I move on to the next part, I will say I'm enjoying the hell out of the game. I really like it. But there are problems and they MIGHT be show stoppers for you. Read on to see what I found to be issues.

First off, the voice acting, while dramatically better than Call of Cthulhu, is still pretty bad. It's almost like the people they got to do the acting don't know how to inflect questions properly. Sometimes they sound cheerful, then annoyed then apathetic...it's like their Prozium isn't at the right dose or something.

Second, there are a LOT of bugs. I've been trapped behind walls, fell behind things you can't get out of, etc. Some of the monsters glitch into the wall and you can take your time shooting them. That gets old pretty fast.

Third, there was a scene where a normal person ran in and started shooting at me. It was about the least climactic, most ridiculously comical firefight I've seen in a game. He ran in, arm out, taking shots as he sort of danced back and forth like he had to pee.

I have a minor gripe about how they send you to new locations. Some are on the map and others you have to hunt down by looking for cross streets. If I understood why some are on there and others aren't, I'd forgive it. But it seems pretty arbitrary.

They also released 3 side missions as day 1 DLC. That's pretty shifty IMO. It's obvious it should've been in the game and yet they stiffed you for an extra 25 bucks. Plus, they did it by relating it to the Necronomicon. Kind of shameful to be perfectly honest.

Some of the cases seem pretty linear. It doesn't entirely hold your hand, but it's obvious enough where you have to go. Plus, you can't avoid certain steps. They're required to continue on. This cuts into the 'open world' part of the game a bit.

The RPG part is rough. I've done a lot of stuff and only picked up three knowledge points (each one buys a new skill). They seem useful enough (carry more ammo, carry more first aid, take more damage) but it'll be a while to get even half of them.

I'm still really enjoying it and I look forward to finishing the game. I've already put more time into it than it took to beat Call of Cthulhu. I recommend the game if you really enjoy Lovecraft work, want to play an adventure game that harkens back to the Gabriel Knight days (with some light combat) and want to see an interesting story.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

]]>Sun, 30 Jun 2019 21:47:21 GMThttp://www.roberthazelton.com/blog/annabelle-comes-home-2019The Conjuring 1 and 2 are a couple of my favorite horror movies. They actually scared the crap out of me, gave me nightmares for days...real terrifying stuff. They worked for me on a number of levels, not the least of which being that the main characters were capable investigators of the occult, not hapless victims waiting to be attacked or killed by the monsters.

After those, the Conjuring Cinematic Universe went downhill a bit but they still made enough to continue pumping out films. I saw Annabelle Creation because I loved the period they set it in but sadly, it proved to be pretty disappointing. I've seen MASH episodes that were scarier. So how did this installment in the series come out?

Pretty much okay. To be perfectly honest, I wouldn't have seen it at all if they hadn't shown the Warrens in the trailer (not once but a couple times). Then they were in the movie for about 5 minutes total. They were magical but the rest of this film is a pretty by the numbers ghost story with characters written to make stupid mistakes so they can be scared.

What this amounts to is not really engaging me at all. I jumped twice (once they got me good) but for the rest of the film, I just didn't find it scary. Judy Warren, their daughter, was the absolute best part because she knew what was going on and didn't make the dumb mistakes of the other characters.

The Annabelle doll itself is scary looking but the real version is so much more terrifying considering it doesn't look like Satan crafted it on a boring Saturday night. The horror of that thing was the reputation. The way the doll is in the film series makes it so screwed up looking that no one in their right mind would be keeping it around if not because it looked creepy, then because it looks filthy in a way you could never clean.

A Conjuring 3 movie is set for 2020. I'm hoping they return to the roots and get out of this...pathetic character path they've found themselves in. While I didn't despise the people by the end of the movie, they did little to make me care about their plight. And in a horror movie, the only way you're going to get scared is if you care what happens.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 (extra half point because the actress who played Judy Warren was incredible).

]]>Thu, 27 Jun 2019 06:30:35 GMThttp://www.roberthazelton.com/blog/doctor-who-season-5Oh boy. This was a tough one. We finished it this evening, plowing through it in record time really. I wish I could say it was because I sat through some riveting television but in reality, this season felt like a means to an end for me. Something I had to watch before I could get to what's really got me curious in this series.

I've never made a secret of how I feel about Matt Smith. I don't mind him as an actor. I've seen him in some things I liked but for me, something seemed off about him as the Doctor. I firmly believe he was short changed by coming on the tail of David Tennant and the writing certainly took a downturn. For the most part, I can say that this felt like the weakest set of episodes I've seen yet.

I had fun several times. Karen Gillan was magical. Arthur Darvill quickly won me over and became a favorite of the show. Matt Smith, taken all on his own without comparisons, did a great job on several occasions. I enjoyed his quirkiness, some of the strange things he did but there are some that just felt...wrong. Off.

John Grisham is a curmudgeon of a writer, but he once said don't bother to write a novel when you're under thirty. You haven't lived enough for anyone to be interested in what you have to say. I think that's rubbish for the most part but there's something to be said about bringing experience to what you're doing.

Matt Smith was twenty-six years old when he took the mantel of the Doctor. He only finished school in 2005 then got the role of the Doctor in 2008. They revealed his involvement the following year. Throughout this season, I felt like he didn't have anything to draw on for some of the angst I expected with one exception:

At the end of the season, when he's talking to Amy as she sleeps, I felt his age then. I don't know how he did it then because most of the series, he feels like someone who isn't really qualified to be hopping around time. The quirkiness became too childish for me I suppose.

There's one stand out episode with Vincent Van Gough and that was so stunning, it could've been in any of the previous seasons. All around, stunning. I loved it. Everyone got to shine in it and they were all incredible. It was, by far, my favorite part of the season.

I stand by Amy and Rory being amazing though. They also helped elevate things. If the Doctor hadn't been quite so arrogant (there's a great article explaining how he's been afflicted with the Captain Kirk syndrome thanks to Moffat's writing), and had I not been forced to endure River Song's utter and constant smugness, I think the whole season would've been a lot better.

All this said, I admit that I liked David Tennant's Doctor the best. I miss him. He elevated the worst writing of his season to be tolerable (with the exception of the last episode of Season 3 which was just pretty much terrible). I don't think it was fair for Matt Smith to come after him even with incredible companions.

Speaking of which, I need to talk about the fact that this season really does work hard to erase the stuff in the past. I feel like a few more references would've made the universe a little less empty. That's probably the heart of what I thought of Season 5: it just felt empty.

Retouching on River Song for just a moment, her 'spoilers' and swagger aside, when she killed the Dalek at the end of the season, that was pretty amazing. I wish that Moffat wouldn't have made someone quite so flawless (making her a prisoner for killing a good man she won't talk about doesn't count as a flaw, it counts as nonsense drama).

Anyway, Season 5 Doctor Who. Rating: 2.75 out of 5.

]]>Tue, 25 Jun 2019 23:16:42 GMThttp://www.roberthazelton.com/blog/three-days-of-the-condor-1975I'd been meaning to watch this for a while. Sydney Pollack directing, someone I admire a lot. Spy movies are right up there for me with courtroom dramas. I'm pretty sure I've seen this before but it was long enough ago that I didn't remember it.

Seeing it as an adult had a dramatically different impact than being a kid. All the concepts, some of which became a real problem later for America, were awesome to see through the lens of the 1970s. It wan't without problems, but I'd say the movie was all around worth seeing.

The violence in the movie wasn't glorified. It happened in a way that just felt real. People weren't pulling off Jason Bourne style ass kicking. It was a lot more frantic, rushed, and desperate. Guns seemed brutal. I liked the overall depiction of how they handled it.

Robert Redford's character proved more wily than I would've given him credit for due to his background. He really came out more lucky than skilled (which was okay I guess).

Some of the twists didn't work for me. The choices made, the kidnapping...I don't know. a lot of the smaller details felt tacked on. I almost blame Dino De Laurentiis because pretty much everything he touches has a layer of silly problems that didn't have to be there.

I think this is a passably good spy movie with an interesting premise that transcends it's time. It's worth seeing if you've already watched many other spy movies and want to see the precursor to those modern ones we're inundated with now.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

]]>Tue, 25 Jun 2019 04:57:07 GMThttp://www.roberthazelton.com/blog/broadchurch-season-1-2013I've become quite a fan of BBC television as of late. It's been more my speed maybe, I don't know. But all around, I find that I really enjoy the pacing, the characterization, the acting, the way people and places look...there's a reality to it American TV often lacks, a bit of imperfection to make it beautiful.

Broadchurch nails that perfectly. The first season is like watching a motion painting. Gorgeous scenery, awesome actors, plenty of drama. I would argue that the mystery was perhaps too oblique. There were not enough viewer clues to indicate who committed the crime so that by the time of the reveal, you would likely be surprised but not necessarily in a good way.

We watched the first 8 episodes of Broadchurch in 4 days. I remember it pretty well and there were not nearly enough hints or clues to indicate the killer. A couple TINY shreds of evidence made it seem possible but there's also something that throws it all for a huge loop.

Getting there was the battle though. That's what made the show entertaining and engaging. It was brutally stressful for the characters. They did a great job of making you feel this insane level of tension for what was happening to them. A constant state of emotional bouncing made it tough.

I'm about to watch Gracepoint, which came out the very next year. Hell, as far as I can tell, they were still filming Broadchurch Seasons 2 and 3. I hear the ending is different so I look forward to seeing how they changed it. I'm surprised the writer/creator would walk away and not do a Season 4.

It seemed like it could've gone on for a long time. But then that's the beauty of British TV. With few exceptions, they tend to tell a story and get out before it wears out its welcome. I'm happy I saw this season and the best part is you don't HAVE to keep going. The story ended in Season 1.

I recommend Broadchurch Season 1 for sure. It was definitely my favorite detective show in a long time. Felt like all the best parts of the Killing and Twin Peaks (sans supernatural stuff).

Rating: 5 out of 5.

]]>Fri, 21 Jun 2019 04:57:33 GMThttp://www.roberthazelton.com/blog/june-20th-2019Let's talk about some nostalgia! I remember seeing this when it first came out. I was ten years old and much of the dialogue went over my head. Since then, I'd seen it maybe half a dozen or more times. It held a place in my head as a reasonably decent post apocalyptic movie.

So when I saw that it was on Amazon Prime, I had to give it another shot. This case proved nostalgia had it mostly right. I had a good time, even if the movie is far more ridiculous to watch now. All around, I would say Night of the Comet is a worthwhile time capsule.

Now, that's not to say you're in for grand cinema here. No, there's a lot of silly going on. Many events take place off camera. In fact, what DOES happen is pretty sparse and spans essentially 2 full nights. I compared this to a role playing group.

For example, they hear something on the radio and figure 'hey, that guy's still there, let's check it out', never stopping to wonder 'maybe he's bat shit insane since everyone's dead and he's still broadcasting shit about it being only 11 days til Christmas'.

They gather guns off camera, shoot up a car then go to the mall. They argue about what's actually happening a couple times, but not with any real conviction. Ultimately, I'll break down what someone was thinking when they made the movie:

1) We want a couple of hot ladies running around a mall.2) We want those hot ladies to be capable of kicking ass.3) We need a shady organization to add some menace.4) Zombies.

This formula served them mostly well. The organization supposedly consisted of genius scientists who didn't think to leave the fans off while the comet passed by overhead (whoopsie!). Zombies could talk (pretty well in fact). Not sure what the first one was thinking when he demanded the lead actress 'come here'.

Now, above I said that it's a worthwhile time capsule. I think you'd have fun watching it. This is not to say it's a good movie. It does have Commander Chakotay in one of his early roles (and he's pretty cool) and Geoffrey Lewis is a bad guy. The real problem is there's just no sense of plan in what's going on or what will come after.

I recommend it for a fun 80s retro night but I'm rating it kinda low for being...well...ridiculous.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Final trivia: all the LA empty street scenes were filmed early in the morning when traffic wasn't so bad yet. They waited for cars to be stuck at traffic lights and caught the footage they needed. Apparently, some of it was done on Christmas morning.